Graduate student Candice Myruski uses a large-format camera, similar to the kind used by documentary photographer Roydon Hammond, to rephotograph Mitchell Hall.

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It was nearly a century ago that the
University of Delaware first found itself in a rapid, dizzying period of
expansion, where growth could be measured in gifts, in land, in
architectural blueprints that would soon give way to bricks and mortar
structures along The Green.

Iconic structures. Buildings constructed at a time when men and women
studied in separate colleges on opposite ends of campus and mingled in
Memorial Hall. Then known as Memorial Library, its identical entrances
were built to provide both sexes equal access to the center (and
intellectual heart) of campus.

Completed in December 1924, Memorial was perhaps the
Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory (ISE Lab) of its
day — a significant capital project that was fundamental to the primary
scholarship of the University.

That might be why the late Delaware photographer Roydon Hammond took still shots of the building soon after its completion.

Noted mostly for his images of Delaware plants, agriculture and farm
life, Hammond is widely regarded as the state's foremost documentary
photographer. Of his collection of 2,000-plus glass plate negatives, now
housed in the Delaware Public Archives, about two dozen are of various
University buildings from the 1920s and '30s.

But why he took them and what purpose they served we may never fully know.

David Ames, professor of urban affairs and public policy and geography and director of the Center for Historic and Architecture and Design,
speculates that some images, like the Memorial Hall photograph, might
be construction shots. Others, like photos of Old College and wide shots
of The Green, may have been used for state tourism efforts.

"The pictures give us knowledge that we didn't have before; they
bring new information to interpret," says Ames, who has been working on a
larger three-year project to "rephotograph" hundreds of the images from
Hammond's 2,000-plus collection.

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Developing a 'figital' technique

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Roydon Hammond captured this image of UD's Memorial Hall, known at the time as Memorial Library, on Oct. 6, 1925.

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In the interest of authenticity and precision, photographer and
historic preservation graduate student Candice Myruski has been shooting
the UD rephotographs with a large-format camera, similar to the one
used by Hammond.

She spent time last spring rephotographing nearly half of the 32
campus pictures Hammond took between 1925 and 1936 (of the 32 images,
only 15 were distinct pictures, as each photo was shot multiple times).

And just as Hammond took duplicate images of the same building,
Myruski often found herself standing where he stood nearly a century
before, taking an extra photo with the precision of her predecessor.

She recreated his process down to vantage point lens coverage,
lighting and weather conditions under which the original glass
plates were taken. But to process the rephotographs, she and Ames
developed what they call a "figital" technique — film plus digital—in
which they scan the large format film negatives and work with digital
negatives.

"It's interesting to recreate these pictures," Myruski says. "They
serve as historical documents for how campus has changed over the years.
Or hasn't."

In fact, in a project that aims to document a nearly 100-year
history, perhaps most interesting is how most of these structures have
remained virtually unchanged as the world around them has aged.

"A University is about study and meditation," Ames explains.
"Continuity is important, and stability," he adds, "is often a testament
of strength."

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A UD project is re-creating photographs of campus buildings that were taken in the 1920s and '30s by documentary photographer Roydon Hammond.

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The late Roydon Hammond, regarded as Delaware's foremost documentary photographer, took some two dozen photos of UD campus buildings in the 1920s and '30s, which a new project is re-creating using similar equipment and techniques.

7/5/2013

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